Happy Birthday America! What’s a birthday party without cupcakes? My friend Terese and I were talking about sweet treats the other day and she told me about her favorite cupcakes. They have a cookie dough center! A cookie and a cupcake….now that’s a party!

I was cracking up as she told me about the last time she made these. Family friends from out of town were staying with them and the “kids” decided to make cupcakes for dessert that night. They started to make them in the morning and the smell of the cupcakes baking was so fantastic they could hardly stand it! When they came out of the oven, they just had to try one….and then another….and another and pretty soon all of the cupcakes were gone. Not only did they not make it to that night’s dessert plate, they didn’t even get frosting on them!

Inspiration hit when I remembered chocolate chip cookies are so very American! The chocolate chip cookie was invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield. She owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts, a very popular restaurant that featured home cooking in the 1930s. During WWII, US soldiers from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from back home with soldiers from other parts of the US. Soon, hundreds of soldiers were writing home asking their families to send them some Toll House cookies. Wakefield was soon inundated with letters from around the world asking for her recipe. Thus began the nationwide craze for the chocolate chip cookie.

Terese’s Shortcut: 1 box of Yellow cake mix, 1 tube of chocolate chip cookie dough and NO frosting…’cuz when you want cupcakes for breakfast there’s no time to waste!

Now for the longer version. The way our forefather’s would have done it…..

Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into balls. Recipe will make about 18 balls.

Place balls on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes or up to overnight. Cover so they don’t pick up any non-compatible freezer smells!

Spoon out batter into lined cupcake pan, filling about halfway. Drop a ball of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough into the center of each cupcake.

If you would like the cookie dough to bake up slightly, keep the top of the ball showing above the batter. If you’d like to keep the cookie dough soft, make sure that the batter covers the dough ball. Do not overfill the cupcake liner. Fill empty muffin cups 1/3 full with water so your muffin tin doesn’t warp.

Cool the cupcakes in the muffin tin for 10-15 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

In a pastry bag, make one line of each color up the inside of the pastry bag. Using a paint brush dipped in the red gel color, draw a line up one side of the bag. Next, repeat this with the blue gel color on the opposite side of the bag.

Pipe the frosting onto a plate until you see the colors start to appear in the piping. Now you are ready to frost the cupcakes! This takes a little practice but you get the hang of it pretty fast. No two cupcakes will look the same which is very cool! Just like people, we are all different but each of us is beautiful in our own way!

Yummy cookies dough center! Just like life, this cupcake is full of surprises! Happy 4th of July to you all!

For the cookie dough filling: In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, use an electric or stand mixer to cream together the butter and sugars.

Add milk and vanilla.

Stir in the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips.

Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into balls. Recipe will make about 18 balls. Place balls on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes or up to overnight. Cover so they don’t pick up any freezer smells!

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with 18 liners.

In a medium bowl, shift (I always shift dry ingredients!) and whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Mix in eggs and egg yolk one at a time and then mix in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients alternating with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. ie: 1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk and last 1/3 of flour mixture. Mix until combined and the batter is smooth.

Spoon out batter into lined cupcake pan, filling about halfway.

Drop a ball of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough into the center of each cupcake. If you would like the cookie dough to bake up slightly, keep the top of the ball showing above the batter. If you'd like to keep the cookie dough soft, make sure that the batter covers the dough ball. Do not overfill the cupcake liner. Fill empty muffin cups 1/3 full with water so your muffin tin doesn't warp.

Bake the cupcakes for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake portion of the cupcake, not the dough center, comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in the muffin tin for 10-15 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting: In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy.

Beat in 1/2 of the powdered sugar. Add the almond extract and 3 tablespoons of milk. Add the rest of the powdered sugar to achieve desired consistency. Add more milk if too thick or more powdered sugar if too thin.

Yield: About 3 cups. Enough to frost 18 cupcakes with a medium amount of frosting. If you like your cupcakes filled high, then increase the amount of frosting by half.

For the Patriotic Frosting: In a pastry bag, make one line of each color up the inside of the pastry bag. Using a paint brush dipped in the red gel color, draw a line up one side of the bag.

Next, repeat this with the blue gel color on the opposite side of the bag.

Fill bag with frosting and pipe out the frosting onto a plate until you see the colors start to show. Now you are ready to pipe the Patriotic frosting onto the cupcakes.